Hattie Wyatt Caraway, first woman to be elected to the US Senate, won an historic second term in 1938, this time without the dynamic endorsement of Huey Long, who had been assassinated in 1935. During her tenure in the Senate, Caraway achieved many other firsts for women.

She was named chair of the Enrolled Bills Committee in 1933, became the first woman ever to chair a Senate committee and remained there until she left Congress in 1945. Caraway became the first woman to preside over the Senate, the first senior woman Senator (when Joe Robinson died in 1937), and the first woman to run a Senate hearing. She also received assignments on the Commerce Committee and the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry.  

Caraway also secured the first federal funding for an Arkansas college and was responsible for the construction of 9 buildings at Arkansas State University. This was an amazing accomplishment during the Depression. Furthermore, she secured $15 million to construct an aluminum plant in Arkansas.

After serving 13 years in the senate, Caraway lost the general election in 1944 to a former University of Arkansas president, J. William Fulbright who went on to serve for 3 decades. Even though she lost the election, she remained active in politics for the remainder of her life. Franklin Roosevelt nominated her as a member of the Federal Employees Commission, then, in 1946, President Harry S. Truman appointed her to the commission’s appeals board and she retained the position until her death, in Falls Church, Virginia on December 21, 1950 at the age of 72. She was buried next to her husband in Jonesboro, Arkansas

Even though she did not consider herself a feminist, Caraway was the first woman legislator to cosponsor the Equal Rights Amendment, saying "There is no sound reason why women, if they have the time and ability, shouldn't sit with men on city councils, in state legislatures, and on Capitol Hill. Particularly if they have ability!"